Point Reyes Lighthouse

Point Reyes Lighthouse

My husband was starting to feel bored on weekends and wants to do short road trips at least once a month. So, we visited Point Reyes Lighthouse on Sunday. It's about two hours drive from San Francisco. 

 Long curving roads, beautiful scenery... ahhhhh.... what a way to spend a foggy Sunday. =) This being a "food" blog, it's important for us to get some decent food before we start out on our trip.

We made a breakfast stop at Barefoot cafe located in Fairfax, CA. With raving reviews from Yelp, we decided to stop for breakfast. It's a cute tiny cafe located by the main street. It was packed but lucky for us, the breakfast crowd were just leaving as we arrived, so we seated quickly.

Egg Benedict

Pear & Almonds Pancake

We ordered an egg benedict and a stack of pear pancakes with almonds. The egg benedict was good but the pancakes were delicious. I love them. The pear was crispy and sweet paired with the soft fluffy pancakes. It was good.

After a hearty breakfast, we were ready to make our way up to Point Reyes. Passing a couple of milk cow ranches and waterholes along the way. It's a nice scenic drive. About an hour later, we finally made it to the entrance of Point Reyes Lighthouse and were pleasantly greeted by a baby deer which was busy grazing.

 

With a short hike, we reached the steps leading to the lighthouse. A total of 306 steps, it's no easy walk in the park. However, there were three viewing decks which gave us a chance to rest and enjoy the view.

Steps to Point Reyes Lighthouse

Total steps to the lighthouse

Finally, after a long drive and hike, we reached the Lighthouse! Unfortunately, it's too foggy and we didn't get much of a view.  Oh well, there's the long hike BACK - which I'm dreading... ;p

Next time, I will check the weather before heading out....

A hike along Cystral Spring

A road closure, a "lost" husband and an impromptu decision, that's how we ended up in front of Crystal Spring park. With my husband wanting to test his new camera, we decided to go for a hike at the park. 

Thinking it would be a short hike, we took only our camera and phones and set out. The trail looks relatively easy with paved roads. Being a sunny day, there were many families, bikers and joggers. No dogs is allowed at Crystal Spring park. 

Although I'm not particularly athletic, I love to go hiking with my husband. Walking through the trees and lakes, with no disturbance, we can talk for hours as we enjoyed the view. We would try to keep up with each other or slow down when one can't catch-up. I always find hiking a good way to improve our relationship. 

We had no idea how long the trail was as we did not checked out the trail map and information at the entrance. We had wanted to complete the trail but an hour later, and still no sign of the end of the trail, we decided to turn back. Half-way back, we realized that we totally forgot to bring water with us. Thirsty and tired, we were glad to finally "struggle" back to our car.

Well, lesson learnt - remember to read the trail map and bring water before starting a hike. Regardless, we enjoyed our hike and had a great day.

Foodsteps of Anthony Bourdain

Hot Coco at Pambiche

We decided to drive up to Portland, Oregon over the July 4th holidays. An avid Travel Channel fan, I automatically look up what to eat at Portland and with my husband being a true Anthony Bourdain fan, we decided to follow the footsteps of Anthony Bourdain. A quick check on Travel Channel, we noted that Anthony visited only two restaurants in Portland, which was do-able for us as we are staying in Portland for just 2 days. With that, we planned for dinner at Apizza Scholls and a doughnut dessert from Voodoo.


Apizza Scholls

We made reservations for 7:30pm and was seated on time. A great start. :) I noticed that there were a crowd coming in without reservations and the wait is approximately 45 minutes. Thus, I highly recommend you making reservations before dropping by, especially if it's the weekend and you have a large group.

Margherita & Tartufo Bianco

Upon settling into our seats, the waiter was quick to inform us that we could order "half & half" which means we could get half of two different pizza. This is great as we wanted to try both of their famous pizza - the Margherita and the Tartufo Bianco. Note that there is no meat in both pizza. With a meat eater husband, we added anchovies to the Margherita and sausage to the Tartufo Bianco.

Verdict - Our anchovies Margherita pizza was unique. The anchovies added a taste of sea and saltiness to the Margherita. However, without the anchovies, it's just a good tomato based pizza.

The sausage Tartufo Bianco was a burst of truffle goodness. My husband had no idea what I had ordered. Clueless, he took a bite and immediately, told me that there's an aroma that's enhancing the cheese in the pizza. I believe the truffle oil added to the pizza improved the taste of the pizza, you get a more distinctive taste of the cheese with each bite.

On the overall, the pizza are not mind-blowing. It was a busy night and we were served promptly. A night ending with good food and service - a great ending before we left Portland.

Voodoo Doughnut

Voodoo Doughnut

Our next stop was to Voodoo Doughnut. Anyone who had watched travel channel, would have heard of Voodoo Doughnut. I mean Andrew Zimmerman (Bizarre Food) and Adam Richman (Man vs Food) had visited this joint. With such fame, no true travel channel fan would leave Portland without a visit to Voodoo.

Voodoo, Bacon, Oreo Cookie and Rice Krispies

There was already a line when we reached the shop. We quickly got into line and finally, after a 20 minutes wait, it was our turn. We got the famous Voodoo doughnut, Bacon doughnut, Oreo Cookie doughnut and Rice Krispies doughnut.  

The Voodoo doughnut is fun but there's too much jam for my taste. There is a good mix of sweetness and saltiness with the bacon doughnut. The Oreo Cookie and Rice Krispies doughnuts are too sweet for my taste.

Verdict - On the overall, I don't find the doughnuts any tastier than Krispy Kreme or Dunkin Doughnuts. However, Voodoo doughnuts does has a lot of variety. So if you like doughnuts, it's worth a visit.

Off Anthony's Track... Pambiche

After a quick check on Yelp, we decided to make a stop at Pambiche for dinner on our first night. Pambiche is a Cuban restaurant and I never had Cuban food before, so I was excited. Upon arriving at Pambiche, it was vibrant and colorful with a crowd already waiting for table. After putting our names down, we waited for 30 minutes before we got seated. There are both indoor and outdoor seating. We were seated indoor.

Plato Cubano

We ordered two entrees - Plato Cubano and Camarones al Ajillo. The roast pork in Plato Cubano tasted like dry Japanese cha-siu and the Camarones tasted like overcooked garlic prawns. Needless to say, I was not impressed. However, my husband loves the food. He like to fresh, limey and minty spices used in the food. He says the spices whet his appetite, making each bite refreshing. Hmmm ... I guess food is very subjective.

Camarones al Ajillo

Overall - The food is good and the environment is fun. If you like Mexican food, you probably enjoy the food as much as my husband. :)

Have you ever follow Anthony's steps? Where did you go?

Ramen at Mitsuwa (Santouka)

Salt flavor ramen from Santouka

I need a ramen fix! I've been bugging my husband for ramen since last weekend. Finally, he gave in and we drove down to Mitsuwa on Sunday to get my favourite ramen from Santouka.

Santouka shop at Saratoga, CA

For a little ramen shop located at the foodcourt of Mitsuwa, Santouka has its share of loyal followers. Come lunch time, the queue can sometimes extend to the the entrance of Mitsuwa. However, the wait is relatively quick. You basically queue for the order and wait approximate 30 minutes for your ramen to be ready. For us, the wait time often flew by quickly... the foodie in us will always make use of the waiting time to get some sushi and drinks from Mitsuwa. =)

Plate of Cha-siu from Santouka

Santouka is a ramen chain store founded in Japan with locations in many parts of the world. I love the salt flavour ramen - there's something about those chewy noodles and yummy soup that makes me asking for a bigger stomach to eat more. BUT, the best thing from Santouka is the cha-siu! That cha-siu is so good. Those slices of pork has the right amount of fats and meat, with the fats melting away the instant it hits your mouth. Drawing out the flavour of the cha-siu, together with the tender meat and melt-away fats- you get a mouthful of yummy-licous as you chew away at the cha-siu.

 

Cha-siu rice from Santouka

  
Another favourite of ours at Santouka is the cha-siu rice. Well, with cha-siu that good... you can't go wrong with this order. I find that matching the cha-siu with rice allows you to get a better taste from the cha-siu sauce which takes the cha-siu taste to a whole different level. Not to get me wrong, eating the cha-siu together with the noodles is great, but I find that some of the cha-siu sauce flavor is often lost within the ramen soup. To get a true taste of the sauce, it's best to eat it with some rice.

After satisfying my ramen craving, I decide to start a "ramen" making series. So watch out for my blog as I tried to make those yummy-licous cha-siu, ramen and eggs in the next few weeks...